A new report shows that the U.S. locks up more people than any other country at a rate more than five times higher than most other nations.

Some 2.3 million people are in prisons across the United States on any given day, according to a new report by Prison Policy Initiative released Tuesday, which also warned that the number of immigrants behind bars has increased sharply.

The report, titled, “The Whole Pie 2017” found that “99 percent of jail growth over the past 15 years was in the detention of people who are presumed innocent.”

“The United States locks up more people than any other country, at a rate more than five times higher than most other nations,” the group said in a press release about the report.

The report found that in one given year, “people go to jail over 11 million times.” One of the highlights of the report was that one in five people locked up are for drug offenses, while more than one million people are arrested for drug possession every year.

“The numbers in The Whole Pie show that ending mass incarceration will require rethinking not just the war on drugs, but also our society’s response to violent crimes,” the report argued.

One of the shocking findings of the report was that up to 7,200 youth are behind bars whose “most serious offense” is not even a crime.

It found that 6,600 children are locked up for “technical violations” of their probation, and 600 for “status” offenses which are “behaviors that are not law violations for adults, such as running away, truancy, and incorrigibility.”

Meanwhile at least 57,000 people are being held in detention centers and jails for the sole reason of being immigrants, without having committed any crime. Some 16,000 people are being held in immigration detention centers for crossing illegally into the United States, the report said.

The majority of immigrants, 41,000 people, are being held in federal and state prisons without any court proceedings for entering the country illegally and without proper visas. These numbers are expected to significantly increase as a result of the Trump administration crackdown on immigration and repeated vows to lock up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

More than 50 tonnes of Ivanka Trump-branded clothing was imported into the US as her father told the country “we will... buy American and hire American”, it has emerged.

At least 82 shipments also reportedly passed through US customs from China between the election on 8 November and 26 February.

The investigation by news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) also revealed more than two tonnes in ladies’ polyester woven blouses, 1,600 cowhide leather wallets and 23 tonnes in footwear entered the country during this period.

As well as talking of “American carnage”, he castigated domestic and foreign manufacturers for using overseas labour.

But AFP claims to have seen US customs bills that prove his eldest daughter’s company is still buying thousands of items from China, including 53.5 tonnes that were steaming towards American ports during the speech.

The goods were made in China by three US companies which hold Ivanka Trump licences, including G-Ill, Mondani Handbags and Marc Fisher Footwear.

Marc Fisher told AFP it had no comment and others did not respond to requests.

Apparently more than 1,200 shipments of Trump-branded products have flowed into the US from China and Hong Kong over the past decade.

G-Ill reportedly sold $29.4m of the goods in 2015 and sales in the first nine months of 2016 were up $13.3m, according to the firm’s public filings.

Voters who led President Donald Trump to victory will be among the most affected by the Republican legislative project to substitute the Obamacarte, according to a study published by Los Angeles Times.

The daily made an analysis of votes per county and data of fiscal credits, which showed that US citizens with lowest incomne and elderly people living in conservative rural areas of the country will lose much with the proposed sanitary law.

The initiative circulated in the House of Representatives will affect persons over 60 years with annual incomes of 30 thousand dollars.

According to the publication, in almost 1500 counties in the country -of which 90 percent supported Trump- a citizen with those characteristics can spwend over six thousand dollars a year in subsidies of Federal insurances.

Of the 70 counties wherwe consumers will suffer the mnost, 68 voted for the Republican president, added the paper, according to which the worst consequences will be seen in Alaska, Arizona, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma.

In those states the Law of Caring Accessible Health of the Obama administration was crucial to guarantee medical coverage to a great amount of persons.

There will also be negative effects for residents of the territories called pendular that in the last elections favored the present head of State, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan.

Meanwhile, U.S. youths of high income, many of which live in urban areas won by Democrat Hillary Clinton, can obtain more assistance in the Republican legislature.

In general, the persons who will be in better conditions with that proposal will be the richest residents of the nation, who will see a substantial cut in taxes with the elimination of taxes applied at present.

Such taxes are charged to individuals earning over 200 thousand dollars a year and couples that receive over 250 thousand and who applied for the Obamacare to help compensate the cost of helping U.S. citizens of low incomes, recalled the newspaper.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the disproportionate impact of the Republican plan threatens to undermine the promise of Trump to replace the present health care law with a legislation which would assist all U.S. citizens.

The 2016 US presidential election was full of “lies and farces” and was driven by “power-for-money deals,” which in itself was sign of “hypocritical nature of US democracy,” a Chinese government agency stated in a report on America’s human rights record.

“In 2016, money politics and power-for-money deals controlled the presidential election, which was full of lies and farces,” read an annual report released by the China’s State Council Information Office, as cited by Xinhua news agency.

There have been “no guarantees of political rights,” and the election itself, accompanied by large-scale protests, provided “full exposure of the hypocritical nature of US democracy,” the government paper stated.

Beijing’s paper then went on to criticize the US for “continued deterioration in some key aspects of its existent human rights issues last year,” mentioning “the gunshots lingering in people’s ears behind the Statue of Liberty, worsening racial discrimination and the election farce dominated by money politics.”

These instances once again saw Washington undermining “its human rights ‘myth’ with its own deeds,” the report added.

In conclusion, China chastised its geopolitical rival for continuing “to trample on human rights in other countries, causing tremendous civilian casualties” in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

The government paper was released just days after the US State Department published its annual report on human rights practices, which lashed out at aspects of China’s domestic policies, criticizing Beijing for neglecting civil and political rights. It also stated that the government curtails freedoms in Hong Kong and Macau.

“Repression and coercion” of civil society remained severe, the State Department maintained, adding, “As in previous years, citizens did not have the right to choose their government and elections were restricted to the lowest local levels of governance.”

The report also claimed the existence of “arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life, executions without due process, illegal detentions at unofficial holding facilities known as “black jails,” torture and coerced confessions of prisoners… and others whose actions the authorities deemed unacceptable.”

The report was not launched by new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who broke a long-standing tradition by declining to make a public appearance to announce the release. The practice existed for more than 40 years, as previous secretaries of state took part in the public launch or made public comments to mark the report’s publication.

Meanwhile, there are some indications that Washington might be considering withdrawal from the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, a major international agency which oversees the state of human rights and liberties worldwide.

In late February, Politico reported, citing a former State Department official, that the Trump administration was apparently considering the measure due to the council’s critical attitude towards Israel and its alleged inefficiency.

“There’s been a series of requests coming from the secretary of state’s office that suggests that he is questioning the value of the US belonging to the Human Rights Council,” the source said. The UN director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), Lou Charbonneau, said such a move would be “misguided and shortsighted.”

On Monday, President Trump signed a new executive order banning immigrants hailing from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days; refugees will not be permitted to enter for 120 days. On Tuesday evening, attorneys for the state of Hawaii responded with a 40-page request for a temporary restraining order against the new ban, saying, in part, that “the Executive Order means that thousands of individuals across the United States and in Hawai‘i who have immediate family members living in the affected countries will now be unable to receive visits from those persons or to be reunited with them in the United States.”

In terms of its language and execution, this new attempt to expel immigrants is somewhat more temperate than the one before it, no doubt as part of an attempt to dissuade naysayers. Trump’s first ban caused national chaos when introduced on January 27, and the order was eventually shot down by the judiciary system. Regardless, activist groups have already vowed to retaliate: Immediately after the new ban was released, the International Rescue Committee commented that the new ban “heartlessly targets the most vulnerable, harming refugees and helping extremists.”

In addition to its agenda of forced exclusion, the administration’s efforts against immigration and proposed border wall require that the budget of the Coast Guard be cut by 14 percent, while the TSA and FSA budgets will each be reduced by 11 percent, which, ironically, leaves the country even more vulnerable.

According to The Guardian, Trump’s new order is scheduled to go into effect on March 16. The Hawaiia lawsuit proposes that a hearing regarding the order take place on March 15. Other states have yet to follow Hawaii’s lead.

What does the administration say?

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly held a joint news conference on Monday morning to discuss the new directive.

America's top US diplomat said the order was meant to "eliminate vulnerabilities that radical Islamic terrorists can and will exploit for destructive ends".

Mr Sessions said that, according to the FBI, more than 300 people who entered the US as refugees are under investigation for potential terrorism-related offences.

The top US prosecutor said three of the countries were state sponsors of terrorism.

The other three, Mr Sessions said, had lost control of territory to militants such as the Islamic State group or al-Qaeda.

Mr Kelly added that unregulated and unvetted travel was putting national security at risk.

He said the US cannot tolerate "malevolent actors using our immigration system to take American lives".

None of the cabinet secretaries took any questions after the press conference.

Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Donald Trump has, at last, unveiled his new immigration order, and it looks like government lawyers - and not just White House political operatives like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller - have had their input.

Gone are the most controversial measures of the old order, such as preference for Christian refugees and the suspension of existing visas and green cards.

The details of the action's implementation are outlined with greater clarity this time, with more than a week before the new rules kick in.

It's still an open question as to what, if anything, this order will do to prevent violent attacks on US soil, given that past high-profile incidents have not involved individuals from any of the six named countries.

Given the early reaction from groups like the ACLU and Democratic leaders, the story is unfolding as expected.

Although Mr Trump's campaign-rally talk of sweeping Muslim bans are a thing of the past, his supporters will likely revel in the uproar and consider this latest move a campaign promise kept.

Why the delayed implementation?

This Syrian family were reunited at Chicago's O'Hare airport in February / Getty Images

The new order is set to take effect on 16 March.

White House officials hope the 10 days' notice will help to avoid some of the chaotic scenes at US airports that occurred on 27 January when the first executive order was announced without warning.

Travellers with valid visas who were in the air at the time found themselves detained by border officials on arrival.

Mr Trump had defended the lack of notice, tweeting that "if the ban were announced with a one week notice, the 'bad' would rush into our country during that week".

Will the new executive order face legal challenges?

Yes. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman - the state's highest ranking law enforcement officer - issued a statement on Monday saying his office is ready to take the Trump administration to court.

"While the White House may have made changes to the ban, the intent to discriminate against Muslims remains clear," he said.

"My office is closely reviewing the new executive order, and I stand ready to litigate - again - in order to protect New York's families, institutions, and economy."

During the presidential campaign trail late last year, substantial amounts of misleading information in the form of fake news spread about President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Facebook and Google. Google responded by banning fake news outlets from the AdSense display ad network and by tweaking the Google News algorithm to filter out fake news. And Facebook has just launched a tool that flags fakes news in the News Feed, according to a tweet posted by Gizmodo investigative reporter Anna Merlan.

In the screenshot above, you will notice a headline that says “Trump’s Unsecured Android Device Source Of Recent White House Leaks.” This fake news article was spread by a website called TheSeattleTribune.com. While this domain might sound legitimate and the homepage does not show any signs of the website being a fake news source, it has an inapparent disclaimer that says “The Seattle Tribune is a news and entertainment satire web publication. The Seattle Tribune may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within The Seattle Tribune are fictional and presumably satirical news – with the exception of our ‘list style’ articles that include relevant sources.” However, the article about President Trump's "unsecured Android device" was viewed nearly 200,000 times and TheSeattleTimes.com financially benefitted from duping people into thinking it was real news.

Fortunately, Facebook’s new tool appears to be showing that the article was “Disputed by Snopes.com and PolitiFact” so that users should not be fooled into thinking that it is true going forward. Snopes is a website that clears up misinformation that spreads on the Internet and PolitiFact fact-checks political claims by officials. All of the non-partisan fact-checkers that Facebook appointed to help with the prevention of misinformation are required to sign a "Code of Principles" by the Poynter non-profit school for journalism.

Back in December 2016, Facebook said that it would bury fake news articles and label them as hoaxes in the News Feed. Facebook also made it easier to report a hoax if you see one in the News Feed by clicking on the upper right-hand corner of a post and tapping on “It’s a fake news story.” After a story is flagged as disputed, it will be reviewed by the third-party fact-checkers. And if it has been proven to be a fake news story, then the post cannot be turned into an ad or promoted.

During the presidential campaign trail late last year, substantial amounts of misleading information in the form of fake news spread about President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Facebook and Google. Google responded by banning fake news outlets from the AdSense display ad network and by tweaking the Google News algorithm to filter out fake news. And Facebook has just launched a tool that flags fakes news in the News Feed, according to a tweet posted by Gizmodo investigative reporter Anna Merlan.

In the screenshot above, you will notice a headline that says “Trump’s Unsecured Android Device Source Of Recent White House Leaks.” This fake news article was spread by a website called TheSeattleTribune.com. While this domain might sound legitimate and the homepage does not show any signs of the website being a fake news source, it has an inapparent disclaimer that says “The Seattle Tribune is a news and entertainment satire web publication. The Seattle Tribune may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within The Seattle Tribune are fictional and presumably satirical news – with the exception of our ‘list style’ articles that include relevant sources.” However, the article about President Trump's "unsecured Android device" was viewed nearly 200,000 times and TheSeattleTimes.com financially benefitted from duping people into thinking it was real news.

Fortunately, Facebook’s new tool appears to be showing that the article was “Disputed by Snopes.com and PolitiFact” so that users should not be fooled into thinking that it is true going forward. Snopes is a website that clears up misinformation that spreads on the Internet and PolitiFact fact-checks political claims by officials. All of the non-partisan fact-checkers that Facebook appointed to help with the prevention of misinformation are required to sign a "Code of Principles" by the Poynter non-profit school for journalism.

Back in December 2016, Facebook said that it would bury fake news articles and label them as hoaxes in the News Feed. Facebook also made it easier to report a hoax if you see one in the News Feed by clicking on the upper right-hand corner of a post and tapping on “It’s a fake news story.” After a story is flagged as disputed, it will be reviewed by the third-party fact-checkers. And if it has been proven to be a fake news story, then the post cannot be turned into an ad or promoted. Here is a video that Facebook posted in December about the new reporting tool.

Facebook is also compiling a list of website domains that have been notorious for posting fake news so that it is automatically flagged.

As the words "fake news" became more mainstream over the last few months, President Donald Trump started using them on a regular basis to describe some of the larger news outlets such as CNN and The New York Times.

Donald Trump via Twitter

Screenshot from President Donald Trump's Twitter account

Former President Barack Obama also acknowledged that the spread of fake news on Facebook became a major problem during Hillary Clinton's campaign trail. “The way campaigns have unfolded, we just start accepting crazy stuff as normal. And people, if they just repeat attacks enough and outright lies over and over again, as long as it's on Facebook and people can see it, as long as it's on social media, people start believing it. And it creates this dust cloud of nonsense,” said Obama during a Hillary for America rally in Ann Arbor last year.

One of the biggest victims of fake news was a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. called Comet Ping Pong. A fake news article claiming Hillary Clinton and her aides were involved in human trafficking at the Comet Ping Pong location in Washington, D.C. quickly spread on social media. So a 28-year-old from North Carolina fired his rifle inside the pizzeria and attempted to search for child slaves. Later he surrendered to the police after discovering there weren’t any child slaves there. This incident has been labeled as "PizzaGate."

Initially, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was skeptical that the spread of fake news on the social network could have influenced the election. During an interview at the Techonomy conference in November 2016, Zuckerberg said that it was a "pretty crazy idea." But about a month later, he published a Facebook status that said: "While we don't write the news stories you read and share, we also recognize we're more than just a distributor of news. We're a new kind of platform for public discourse -- and that means we have a new kind of responsibility to enable people to have the most meaningful conversations, and to build a space where people can be informed."

Facebook's Fake Advertisement Problem

Interestingly, Forbes staff writer Matt Drange recently pointed out that Facebook is also vulnerable to fake advertisements. Facebook ads are being created that appear to be directing users to a trustworthy website, but it redirects them somewhere else when the ad is clicked on using a bait-and-switch approach also known as “domain spoofing” and “clickjacking.” This can be done in the Facebook ad platform where users are able to manually enter the URL displayed in each ad. Google faces a similar problem with its AdWords platform and the Internet giant ended up having to remove 1.7 billion ads in 2016 alone — which is more than double the previous year.

Facebook spokesman Tom Channick told Drange that the ability to edit the URL is “not always misleading or malicious.” As an example of the URL changing feature being beneficial, Channick said a nonprofit that is running a donation campaign through a third-party site would likely want to display the organization website URL in the ad instead.

When Will I See The Facebook Post Disputes?

Facebook posts that have been flagged as disputes are not appearing for everyone yet. It seems like Facebook is rolling out the feature over time. Most likely, every Facebook user should see this feature appear in the coming weeks.

What are your thoughts about Facebook's new fake news tool? Do you think this is a good way to prevent the spread of misinformation?

Alex Oronov, who had family ties to President's lawyer, reportedly organised meeting aimed at helping give Russian President control of Crimea.

A Ukranian-born millionaire businessman with links to Donald Trump has reportedly died in unexplained circumstances.

Alex Oronov, a 69-year-old naturalised American citizen who ran an agricultural business in his native Ukraine, died on 2 March, according to a Facebook post by Ukranian politician Andrii Artemenko.

Mr Oronov is reported to have set up a secret meeting between Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen – to whom he had family ties - and Russian officials where a “peace plan” is said to have been hatched to give Russian President Vladimir Putin control of the Crimea.

Read more Kissinger 'advises Donald Trump to accept' Crimea as part of Russia

Mr Cohen is understood to have an extensive network of personal and business relationships in the Ukranian-American community – and his associates included Mr Oronov, a partner in the ethanol business the lawyer’s brother, Bryan, set up in Ukraine.

The “peace plan” meeting brought together Mr Artemenko, Mr Cohen and Felix Sater, an American-Russian long-time business associate of Mr Trump who is reported to have ties to the Russian mafia.

Details of this meeting are believed to have ended up on the desk of Michael Flynn, Mr Trump’s former security adviser who was forced to resign last month over his alleged secret dealings with Russian officials.

The New York Times – which Mr Trump has repeatedly accused of producing “fake news” - reported the meeting between Mr Artemenko, Mr Cohen and Mr Slater.

In his lengthy Facebook post, Mr Artemenko describes himself as a pawn in a diplomatic game and said the stress created by the article and the negative attention that followed the article was too much for Mr Oronov.

The post, written in Russian, translates loosely: “Yes, I’m guilty... Alex Oronov, my partner, my friend, my mentor, Alex was a family member of Michael Cohen. And he organised all kinds of stuff, including an introduction and a meeting for me with Michael Cohen.”

It adds: “Unfortunately, his heart could not endure it. He died... Friend, your death will not have been in vain, nor will the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukranians and Russians, Alex Oronov, during this wild, undeclared war! Rest in peace and forgive me if you can, as difficult as that may be!”

The Ukrainian MP points the finger of blame at “overexertion, the nerves, from injustice, from suspicion, from sorrow of misunderstanding”.

The remembrance website legacy.com has a listing for Alex Oronov of New York, with dates that match those of the businessman.

One friend and business associate has so far left a tribute on the site, which reads: “Alex had a huge heart and he did a lot for those who were part of his family and part of his company.”

Conspiracy theorists have pointed to a number of recent deaths of Russian diplomats in the past four months.

Russia’s permanent ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, died last month in New York after suddenly becoming ill on his way to work the day before his 65th birthday.

It was initially reported he had suffered a heart attack but an autopsy proved inconclusive.

The Russian Consul in Athens, Andrei Malanin, 55, was found dead on the floor of his apartment in Greece in January. Greek police said there was no evidence of a break-in and he was believed to have died of natural causes.

Russia’s Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, 67, was reported to have died of heart failure in January after a “brief illness” according to Indian media.

Russian diplomat Sergei Krivov, 63, was found unconscious having suffered severe head injuries at the Russian consulate in New York on US election day.

According to BuzzFeed, Mr Krivov was initially said to have fallen to his death following a suspected heart attack, but a subsequent report from medical examiners was inconclusive.

Mr Krivov is believed to have been responsible for the security of the consul from American intelligence, although he was initially said to have been “a security guard”.

The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was assassinated in Ankara by a policeman at a photography exhibition on 19 December and another diplomat, Peter Polshikov, was shot dead in his Moscow apartment on the same day.

Former KGB chief Oleg Erovinkin, who was suspected of helping British spy Christopher Steele draft a dossier on Donald Trump, was found dead in the back of his car last Boxing Day.

Mr Erovinkin was also an aide to former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin, who now heads up state-owned oil company Rosneft and is said to have been named in the dossier.

His death was initially reported as a suspected murder – but officials later claimed he had died of a heart attack.

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In Sancti Spiritus People also Shouted ´I am Fidel´

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Cubasí.cu interviewed translator Aracelia del Valle from Escambray website on people’s reaction for the journey of the caravan carrying the remains of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro to Santiago de Cuba.